I know some people may be saying, “Duh. It’s the same thing. A team is made up of a group of individuals”. Yes, but do we manage the group or the individuals that make up the group?

I know it’s a subtle point but a leader’s perspective on that point has a palpable impact on whether they can attract and retain their most talented employees in today’s workplace.

The leadership models of the past and the ones most of us have cut our teeth on focused on the one size fits all theory. That is, each of us has a leadership style that we are either comfortable with or have learned along the way and we apply that style to running our “teams”. We don’t deviate much away from that style. Actually, the more consistently we apply it the better since it shows we are treating everyone the same. But does it actually show that?

I used to think it did. After all, I was trained and compensated on how consistent my style was. Everyone in my team knew exactly how I ran things and the subtle message was that they had to conform to that style if they wanted to succeed in my team. I felt that my consistent, one size fits all style helped me weed out the non-performers, those people that were not , A-players, or at least they weren’t in my mind.

It wasn’t until I started hiring Gen Yers in my team and created a lab to figure them out that I questioned that approach. I realized that I was leading the masses, the amorphous “TEAM” and not the individuals that made up my team. By being consistent in my leadership style I was telling the masses how to conform. That gave me the advantage of running a very efficient and productive team. What I didn’t realize is that its side effect was creating sameness instead of variety. Now years ago, a lot could be said for efficiency and productivity and sameness. But as the pace of change increased and continues to do so at breakneck speeds, sameness is a creativity and innovation killer.

What I discovered as I tried to make sense of Gen Yers (certainly NOT the same as me) was that if I wanted my team to be innovative going forward, my leadership style had to take a more unconventional approach. Instead of having my “team” conform to my leadership style, I had to understand and capitalize on the richness of skills, attributes and experiences that each person in my team brought with them. Instead of leading the masses with a one size fits all style, I learned to understand, appreciate and leverage the unique, distinctive and one of a kind qualities each individual brought to my team. That was a “massive” shift for me and a total game changer.

The days of one size fits all leadership are quickly coming to an end and are on life support. Don’t try to hold on to it. Let it go. It’s a recipe for being left behind. Embrace the unfamiliar so you can understand and capitalize on the unique talents each of your employees brings to the workplace.

In a recent blog, Seth Godin wrote a blog titled “Please consider Weird”. In it he says that “The defining idea of the twentieth century, more than any other, was mass”. He continues to say that the concept of mass is dead and that although that gets us uncomfortable it also provides us with a great opportunity.

The same applies to leadership. Although leadership of the masses (aka TEAM) is our comfort zone, we need to get uncomfortable to pave another way to harness the variety, creativity and innovation that each of our employees bring to the workplace.

In a recent blog, Seth Godin wrote a blog titled “Please consider Weird”.In it he says that “The defining idea of the twentieth century, more than any other, was mass”. He continues to say that the concept of mass is dead and that although that gets us uncomfortable it also provides us with a great opportunity.

The same applies to leadership. Although leadership of the masses (aka TEAM) is our comfort zone,we need to get uncomfortable to create an opportunity to harness the variety, creativity and innovation that each of our employees bring to the workplace.

Since I left corporate to start my business a few years ago, I’ve had a steady stream of inquiries from friends and colleagues about getting out of corporate. For some reason, over the last few months, those inquiries have increased significantly. Now these are bright, talented individuals making very decent incomes who are absolutely miserable and disgusted with corporate life. I point that out because many times people think it’s just the 20-somethings that are complaining about corporate life. No, folks. It’s not just the Gen Yers – it’s Xers and lots of Boomers doing the complaining.

In every case , without exception, when I dig a little bit to find out what is at the root of the unhappiness, it turns out to be poor leadership. There are many reasons given. Here’s the top 10 list of complaints:

My boss has no clue what’s going on in the team.

My boss is a very good [fill in the expertise – salesperson, accountant, lawyer] but he’s a lousy manager.

My boss doesn’t stick up for us and caves in to the demands of other departments or higher ups.

The staff isn’t getting a raise but the higher ups are getting outrageous bonuses this year.

My boss is so afraid of losing her job that she refuses to listen to new ideas we’ve presented that can help the team.

My boss listens to people who are out of touch with the realities of what the team faces.

My boss is not well respected by the higher ups or his colleagues and is ineffective.

My boss is just holding on long enough to get retirement.

My boss has a sink or swim mentality.

My boss has no time for his employees.

Any of these ring a bell? Which ones resonate the most with you? What complaint isn’t on there that you feel strongly about? For me, the ones that would put me over the edge were #1, 3, 5 and 7.

After listening to so many people repeat these reasons over and over again, I wondered how so many leaders could be so clueless about how their employees felt? I realize that employees aren’t going to volunteer that information to their boss even if he or she asks. I also know that employees aren’t always forthcoming in giving that information on employee engagement surveys no matter how much the company tries to convince them their answers are “confidential”.

So I decided to post the top 10 complaints here in the hopes that leaders would read them and ask themselves 3 probing questions.

Who is someone inside or outside the company that I trust that can give me an honest assessment of how I am perceived as a leader? We all know people in our careers that are honest, trustworthy and discreet that can help us answer whether our perception of how we lead matches how others see us lead. The answer might surprise you.

Do any of these complaints describe my peers or bosses? Can any of them remotely describe me? Many times if you can spot these behaviors in others around you, it makes you stop and reflect on your own and causes you to take some time to be introspective.

What is one thing I can do today to ensure that my perception of how I lead is aligned to how others see me as a leader?

Of course, to answer these questions truthfully require you, as a leader, to be objective about yourself. But more importantly, it requires you to still CARE about being an effective leader. From the sounds of the heightened grumblings I’m hearing lately, that may be the missing ingredient.

So my question for you is: are you one of the leaders described in this Top 10 list? What are you doing to make sure you’re not?

Last week, my friend, Gina Carroll, who also happens to be an awesome editor, reminded me that I had never posted the last blog in this series. My bad. So here goes.

The last of the disturbing trends that I see that can keep mediocrity alive & well in Corporate America is the resistance to tap into AND harness the talent that Millennials bring to the workplace. Millennials have been in the workplace for 10 years now and still corporate leaders are having difficulty managing them. As I work with corporate clients, I see their continued insistence to hold on to entrenched systems that worked in the past. Having been in their shoes, I totally understand why they want to do that. They have worked long and hard to get processes and systems in place. There’s a lot invested in corporate SOP (Standard Operating Procedures). The thought of having to give up the tried and true for the trial and error isn’t something many leaders are enthusiastic about doing.

The problem is that continuing to hold on to the tried and true is a prescription for being left behind. The Millennials are the messengers of the future. By pulling them into our 20th Century leadership comfort zones all but guarantees that we will miss the boat. Instead, we should be letting them push us into the 21st Century. But yet leaders are hesitant to do it. This creates a Triple Jeopardy situation in the workplace.

1. Exodus of talent. Talented Gen Yers leave the organization. Tired and fed up with being hand tied and unable to make a difference, the very best and brightest just opt to leave. Where is your future leadership pipeline coming from?

2. Cost. The organization has just wasted time, money & effort on hiring those Gen Yers that subsequently leave. In addition, the employees that remain have to pick up the slack until another replacement is found. This further upsets an already overworked group of people.

3. Rinse &Repeat. The process of hiring the replacement starts the cycle all over again. Without a solid plan in place to engage and leverage the talents Millennials bring, there is a high likelihood that the cycle of turnover will repeat itself again. The organization is perpetuating the problem and falling further behind the innovation curve.

But it doesn’t have to be that way if leaders would be willing to shift their thinking a bit to see 20-somethings as allies instead of aliens. By being unwilling to let go of the status quo, companies are snubbing their nose at 3 ways Millennials can bring profits, growth and vibrancy to the organization. Here’s how they do that.

1. By being Solutionists. 20-somethings are wired to get things done. Whether it was the many demands placed on their time as young children, or the video games they play or the need to make sense of a chaotic world, Millennials are focused on solutions and being resourceful in getting to those solutions.

2. EmbracingReal-Time Reality vs. Delayed Action. You will rarely see a Gen Yer opt to put something on a list so they can get to it later. They tackle the problem on the spot. They look it up and get it done. For Boomer leaders, this is uncomfortable and unsettling to see. We prefer delayed action – let’s put it on our “To-Do” list, let’s research it some more, let’s meet a few more times to explore the problem, etc., etc. Millennials are in-tune with the fact that in today’s world, you won’t get to it later. They never knew a time when there was time to spare. Summers off to play? Only one after school activity? No volunteering on the weekends? This is all shocking to them because from an early age, their lives were full of activities that required you to be present and engaged and responding to things in real-time. There is no missed window of opportunity.

3. Plugging into the Collective. You can’t beat a 20-something in their ability to tap the collective. They realize that 2 heads are better than one and 10 are better than 2. They instinctively know to reach out to others in getting things done because the result will be a better product or solution. Instead of the individual being front & center, it’s the group that works the magic. The collective is at the root of the solution and the ability to tackle problems real time instead of putting it on the list.

Millennials have the 21st Century mindset imbedded in how they think, act and work. By understanding and leveraging that mindset, leaders can infuse fresh, new ways of doing things going forward. Millennials are the messengers of the future and it’s vital that organizations retain the best of them. We will retain them by letting them re-train our automatic defaults. Those tried and true instinctive reactions we have worked so hard to master will get in the way of our ability to: make decisions in real-time, to test our best practices for future viability, to infuse innovation into our SOP.

If Corporate America is going to be a meaningful player in the future, it has to look inward and let go of a lot of the trash it has built up over the years. Like Jennifer Hudson says in the Weight Watcher’s commercial ” It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life” for us as corporate leaders… and yes, embracing it all will also make us ”feel good” IF we give ourselves permission to be bold, experiment & try new things. The Millennials are ready to work with us to forge a new way. Are we?

Yesterday I was reading an article that referenced a survey conducted by Mercer indicating that over 30% of employees are disillusioned and disengaged at work . For Gen Yers on the job, the number increases to over 40%.

The interviews I held with Gen Yers this past year validates the results of the Mercer survey. In fact, I found that over 80% of the Gen Yers I interviewed had already left an unsatisfying job or were aggressively looking to leave.

But here’s what I find most baffling. As I work with business leaders who want to get the most out of their Millennial staff, I find there is no desire on their part to change their way of leading or try something different. A surprisingly large group of business leaders still believe that the Millennials are the ones who are going to have to adapt to the way organizations work. I find that so many leaders are disillusioned themselves and are just plain tired of the corporate grind. They have no desire or incentive to try something different, to capture the minds & talent of their Gen Y staff. Many of them have gone as far as to tell me that they are absolutely NOT going to “rock the boat”. They are desperately holding on, keeping things the same until they can retire.

I find that to be sad and troubling. By 2014, it is estimated that 50% of the workforce will be made up of Gen Yers yet they will be reporting to bosses who are holding on to the status quo and are not that motivated to engage & retain their young staff. Many of them turn a deaf ear when it comes to understanding why Gen Yers are unfamiliar to them as new employees. And even more interesting than that is that many leaders show a disconnect between how they raised their own Gen Y children and what they expect from them as employees.

Here’s an example. Recently, I was working with a manager who talked constantly about how involved she was in her college children’s lives. She explained how she researched the universities they attended, talked with the dean and other assorted faculty & staff at the various colleges they were considering and countless other details that showed how involved she was in their selection and in their lives. She didn’t think anything of her deep involvement in her children’s decisions and the ramifications that would later have. After all, if someone is THAT involved in making decisions on behalf of her children, how can her children be expected to do things on their own.

While I worked with her, she was constantly receiving texts from her children & responding to them. She called them often & researched things for them. So you’d think that someone like that would have a lot of understanding and tolerance for Gen Yers that reported to her. Not at all. She constantly complained about how lazy & unmotivated her young staff was. She was frustrated at how much time she had to “waste” holding their hand through every minor detail of their work. She was appalled at their work habits but fully expected them to “get with the program” and figure things out themselves. After all, no one ever showed her how to get things done. She had to figure it out on her own and so do they.

See the disconnect? Like my client, many Gen Y parents were and are heavily involved in their children’s lives. But when these parents put on their “leader/manager” hats at work, they expect Gen Yers to miraculously figure things out on their own. But how can they when all their lives Gen Yers have had hands-on advisors helping them every step of the way?

Unlike other generations of young workers, Gen Yers have many more employment options than existed in the past. Many leaders mistakenly believe that with the recession Gen Yers are going to have to conform & “get with the program”. They may do that temporarily but here’s something you probably don’t know about your Gen Yers that you would if you spent any time trying to get to know them. Many Gen Yers have side gigs. I believe Pamela Slim, author of “Escape from Cubicle Nation” calls them side hustles. In their spare time, Gen Yers are following their passion, volunteering in non-profits, working part-time at a home-based business. The more disengaged they are at work, the more effort they’ll put into their side hustles.

They also have options around the companies they work for. There are many successful companies that have been started by Gen Yers that are attuned to the needs to Gen Yers & are extremely attractive to them. Think Google, Facebook and many in the non-profit world such as Invisible Children. And we haven’t even talked about the unprecedented access to angel funding & venture capital that is available to someone with an idea, a lot to offer and working for a boss who doesn’t care.

So my advice to leaders out there is this: If you want to attract and keep the best of Gen Y talent and prepare them to lead effectively in the 21st Century instead of the 20th Century, let go of the status quo and stop holding on until you retire. We owe it to our children, your young staff to give them the tools they need to be the great leaders of the future.

Have you worked for Mr. or Ms. Stupe? Stupe is another Gen Y addition & it’s pronounced Stupee. Short for Stupid.

Yes, believe it or not, you may work for a boss that’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

When I started my career, there was a saying, “Screw up to move up.” Do any fellow Boomers remember that saying? We’d use it every time an incompetent person got promoted. Back then, like today, it is often easiest for a company to get the stupid person out of the day-to-day and out of the way by promoting him. Not a smart move, but it happens. Mr. Stupee is ineffective running the team. Somebody else, usually a direct report(s), is the brains of the operation and allows Mr. Stupee to get away with his incompetence.

Discovering that you work for Mr. Stupe was shocking back in the day & it’s even more shocking today. This is the type of thing most young people don’t realize when they are interviewing for a job. Because they don’t know what awaits them as insiders, they don’t know what to ask to try & find out. It’s so important to ask the questions. Not only is it eye opening & valuable to know what you’re getting into but did you know it gives interviewees a leg up in the interview process?

More about that in our next & last post in the series. Batty boss #5: Mr. Snarly – the worst of the bunch.

I was reading the February edition of Success Magazineand an article written by Beth Douglass Silcox titled “Perception is everything: As a salesperson, your social skills can open doors – or slam them shut” caught my interest. As you can tell by the title, the article centered around selling techniques. As I reading the advice that the sales gurus were sharing, I realized that a lot of the advice was relevant to leaders.

According to one of the sales experts, Gary Hankins, author of “The Power of the Pitch“ perception is reality and the difference between a successful salesperson & a mediocre one is that the successful ones know how to control another person’s perception & understands the value of building relationships & social behavior. That made me wonder how many leaders truly sees themselves as their employees do?

When working with leaders & their teams, I see this disconnect time & time again. The leader always thinks the team sees him/her in one way when they actually see him/her in a very different way. The team’s perception is usually not as flattering as the leader’s perception of him or herself. The article is full of great advice that I think leaders can apply just as much as salespeople. I would actually add that in today’s world, leaders are salespeople, too, because they need to constantly influence others – stakeholders, clients, bosses & employees – to get the work done. The more we show the love, the more successful we will be. I’ve heard leaders actually say they don’t have time to show the love. They are too busy getting the work done. Well, as the article shows, the more you show the love, the more people will want to work with you and actually, the easier it will be for you to get the work done.

So, as we celebrate Valentine’s Day today, and we show the love to our spouses, parents, children & all the special people in our lives, let’s remember to show the love to the people we spend a lot of time with everyday: our employees. Here are some great ideas gleaned from the Success Magazine article that I think leaders can apply immediately to show their appreciation of their staff;

Foster relationships with your team by giving rather than receiving

Take an interest in WHO your employees are & not just WHAT they do or can do for you

Listen empathetically to what your employees say

Put your social ego aside & be natural with your employees

Lighten Up! Bring a little fun & humor into your relationship with them

Ask them questions & enjoy the dialogue

Focus on building a relationship with each employee rather than just “managing” them

The more we, as leaders, can connect with our team, the more we can show them the love, the more we help them succeed and consequently, the more they will help us succeed. In the end, that’s a beautiful legacy for a leader.

So what about it? Ready to show the love to your team? Today, Valentine’s Day is a good day to start.

In my blogs I always try to highlight great examples of Millennials doing good & being Millennials. Last week, I came across a blog on Fast Company written by Simon Mainwaring titled: “Using Social Media to Mobilize Millennials“. In the blog, Simon talks about two projects that take a unique & highly Millennial spin on an existing practice. That practice is social causes & our need as humans to give back and help others less fortunate.

The names of the 2 projects are Pando Projects& Loudsauce. The first puts the Millennial brainpower to help young people that have an idea for a business but need help putting the business plan together. Each project gets a website, promotional fundraising & volunteer management tools to kickstart the project. The project is still a pilot but it shows the power of social media as people support projects based on the personal tie they have with that particular cause. If you look at the 15 pilot projects, it clearly shows the interest that Gen Y has for causes and making the world a better place. I particularly loved the projects that also had a multi-cultural component to them as it shows how the future of the US will be more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before.

The second project shows the incredible market savviness that Millennials possess. Loudsauce lists a series of campaigns for causes & based on your preference you donate money to fund advertising for that cause on TV or billboards & then you spread the word using social media such as Facebook & Twitter.

What struck me in both examples is the creativity they display by leveraging 2 of the 5 unique skills & traits that Millennials bring to any situation. The 2 skills are their collaboration or crowd sourcing approach to things & their use of technology. I believe Millennials are extremely lucky to be living in a time where technology provides access to so much that was not available in just a few years past. The way they use technology & harness it is unique to them & extremely powerful. On top of that, Millennials are natural collaborators. I’ve shown many examples in my blogs of Millennials coming together to get things done. They are wired to do it & because it’s natural to them, they harness that collectivity in ways prior generations can’t begin to fathom.

I agree with Simon on his take of the future. The unique skills of the Millennials layered on top of their affinity to get involved in social causes, layered on top of the technology available to help them do that will make them the ”founders of companies and industry leaders that will transform the products, services and role of brands in near future”.

But where will that leave corporations? For the first time, we have a generation of smart, collaborative young people who, at an age where other generations were forced to look for corporate jobs to get experience, have an option to start their own companies & use the collective brainpower of their peers to help them succeed. As corporate leaders continue to rely on outdated principles & techniques that hinder their ability to see the goldmine in their Gen Y staff, they may decide to opt out of corporate and start their own companies.

They have the technology, the social media & the brainpower of their fellow Gen Yers to provide them with the acumen & funding they need to start & grow their own businesses. That combination has never been available to other generations. Can corporations compete against that especially as so many Millennials are getting disillusioned by corporate & its leaders on a daily basis? What kind of talent will be available to corporations? Will the best Gen Y talent be willing to put up with all the hassles of corporate or decide to try their luck & start their own companies & bring on other bright & motivated Millennials?Will corporate be left with a mediocre talent pool going forward or will they be able to attract, retain & leverage the best of Gen Y?

Interesting questions that will be addressed at time goes on. If you want to be that corporate leader that can attract & retain top talent, you better start now First step, let go of the status quo, of your comfort zone & get uncomfortable. Let go of outdated styles & techniques that blind you to the potential that Millennials bring. Ignite experimentation in your group & make that connection with your young workforce. That will give you a good head start. Remember leading successfully in the 21st Century requires leaders to C.A.R.E. – Connect, Adapt, Reshape & Experiment to keep the best talent engaged & commited.

I’m not a big TV fan but every Sunday, I turn it on to watch Undercover Boss on CBS. I like watching how executives who are so removed from the trenches get “aha” moments by experiencing corporate life through interaction with their employees. By now, you know I’m a huge fan of Success Magazine and in the November issue, they showcased White Castle in Emma Johnson’s article titled “Chain Reaction: White Castle’s Davide Rife is intent on having happy employees…“. ( Check back if the November edition is not yet online when you read this.)

If you watch Undercover Boss you know that David Rife appeared on a recent episode of the show. What typically happens is that the boss that goes undercover will go back to Headquarters and make improvements or changes to the operations or corporate policies as a result of his in-the-trenches experience. In David Rife’s case, his 10 day stint visiting various White House facilities reminded him how removed he had become from the day-to-day. In the article, he admitted that “some of those challenges our people face were not as fresh or as high a priority” as they probably had been in the past. Wow? What a breakthrough! As a result of his undercover experience, David went back and made some changes.

One of the things I liked best that he did was to initiate a “Leaders of Tomorrow” program. It’s a mentorship that identifies young employees & shows them how their first job at White Castle can translate into a career if they so desire. As the title of the article says White Castle is committed to having happy employees because they know that it will in turn make for happy customers. I liked that they focused on a starting a mentoring program with their Gen Yers to help them plot a career path & explain the “whys” of how things got done. That is so important for Gen Yers to see & understand.

The Leaders of Tomorrow program would have never been created if David Rife didn’t challenge his leadership comfort zone & put himself in the trenches. In my C.A.R.E. System of Leadership Program one of the key ingredients that I teach under the “C” for Connect segment is to initiate a Shadowing program. This is where the team leader - whether it’s a manager, a VP or C-Suite executive – follows a process where he or she takes time out of their schedule to do what David Rife did: work among the staff. Although my Shadow program is done overtly and in plain sight, the results are often the same as in Undercover Boss.

Either undercover or in plain sight, the truth is there’s nothing that shows you more about the inner dynamics of your team than working along side them for a period of time. That period of time doesn’t have to be extensive. It can be just an hour a week. What happens most of the time is that you wind up increasing the time you shadow because of what it uncovers. It’s an eye opening experience and often leads to change. Positive and productive change. If you did it correctly, it will also increase your leadership “mojo” for lack of a better word. By spending time with your team, especially the Millennials, you give them valuable access to you. They observe you in their turf not yours. They get priceless time with you, to ask you questions, to share their ideas, to show you how they work on a daily basis.

When you take the time to shadow, you will discover what David Rife did which is that you had lost touch with what it’s like to work in the front lines. A lot has changed since many of us were in the front lines and in today’s hectic workplace you can’t ever assume you have a pulse on what is going on in your team without experiencing the challenges they face everyday.

Shadowing allows you to put in action what the Success Magazine article recommends which is: Focus on the front line, stay open to improvement and foster employee growth. If we do that as leaders, we are on our way to making a dent in the corporate malaise that has enveloped many organization today.

So how about it? Are you going to take a page from Undercover Boss and spend time in the trenches? It may be the single most rewarding and enlightening decision you make this year. It certainly can’t hurt…

On September 22nd, I blogged about Nancy Lublin’s article in Fast Company Magazine where she gives her insightful perspective on why Millennial Bashing is wrong. Yesterday, I came across a blog written by a Fast Company blogger called Cali Williams Yost titled “How Millennials are an Untapped Treasure for Business“. She gives a wonderful example of how a senior leader in a company tapped the potential that Gen Yers have to increase business during the worst part of the financial crisis. The senior leader discovered, as I did in my Millennial Lab, that instead of telling Millennials what to do, it’s best to guide them but at the same time, try to unleash their creativity, collaboration and enthusiasm for a project. The results will amaze you.

Recently I was talking to an executive who had followed some of the points I share in my C.A.R.E. System of Leadership and he was excited about the progress he was making in engaging the Millennials in his team. Without thinking, I responded that all companies have a goldmine in their Millennial staff that they should be leveraging especially during these difficult times. He said: ” Wow, that’s what I have and I didn’t even know it. I have a Millennial Goldmine”.

As I read this blog that talked about businesses having a wonderful source of untapped treasure, I remembered the excitement my executive client had leveraging his Millennial Goldmine.

What about you? Are you leaving Talent on the Table by not tapping the Millennial treasure you have in your team? What steps are you taking to disrupt your leadership status quo and leverage your Millennial Goldmine?

According to Bob Sutton, we certainly can. Bob was interviewed in the McKinsey Quarterly. The interview was videotaped and it’s not long and well worth the time to see it. In the video, Bob talks about a recipe that he and his mentor came up with years ago that applies to leading in today’s tumultuous workplace. According to him, ”The recipe is prediction, understanding, control, and compassion”.

Nice recipe and one that as leaders we often forget. Especially the compassion part.

So what about you? What are you doing during these challenging times to show your team that you care about what they are thinking, worrying about and feeling? Remember that as things begin to stabilize in the economy and companies begin to hire, your team will remember what exactly you did or did not do during these scary times to make them feel part of YOUR team.